Cary Williams, fresh off his critical remarks of the defense, was not beaten deep and brought the physical style of play he famously said was lacking, which led to a brief skirmish with Carolina's Steve Smith in the Eagles' 14-9 preseason victory.

Bradley Fletcher was once again active in run support, while Brandon Boykin continued to perform as the finest cover back on the team.

A big reason for the Eagles' overall defensive success Thursday might have been the soft coverage schemes new defensive coordinator Billy Davis called in order for his corners to keep receivers in front of them and prevent big plays.

It worked, as Smith was limited to three catches for 34 yards while the Panthers were able to gain just 212 yards through the air on 32 attempts. Their longest pass of the evening went for 23 yards. But the closer they came to the end zone, the tighter the corners pressed, which made for a very successful night in which the Panthers were never able to find the end zone.

"I think we played well," Williams said. "As a unit I think we showed some good things. We are far from where we want to be, but we need to take it one day at a time and continue to get better."

Williams, like Davis, said the schemes were mostly responsible for the receivers' getting open underneath, which was something the Eagles were willing to give up to get their overall defense back on track.

Their message? Don't be alarmed by how open some of the receivers were. Just focus on the points allowed.

"Some of the different coverages we were playing had the corners playing a little different technique where you couldn't press," Davis said. "Some of the calls weren't press situations because of the formations.

"We were playing a lot of three-deep. The corners have responsibilities of two-on-one sometimes and it just changes things a little bit."

Davis hinted that he had Williams, who was making his preseason debut, play off receivers more because it was his first real action since coming back from a hamstring strain.

"Cary did a nice job," Davis said. "Cary was coming off the injury, so I don't think he was really going to all-out test it, but he ended up playing and tested it pretty well. He did a nice job. ... It was a pretty good receiver he was up against."

But for this secondary, soft pass coverage that tightens with offensive advancement actually may be the way to go. If anything, the Eagles proved Thursday that they have the personnel to pull this off. This, as opposed to last season, when they pressed far too often with corners who were either too slow (Nnamdi Asomugha) or too lost (Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie), and then didn't have any interest in tackling.

This group is vastly different, even if their one-on-one coverage skills may not be at the highest NFL level.

Williams and Fletcher hit willingly like safeties, or at least consistently make the attempt. Boykin has pure speed and seemingly the instinct to match. Curtis Marsh and rookie Jordan Poyer have flashed at times, both showing they can make plays at this level, even if the consistency is not there yet.

It all makes for some interesting competition as the team heads down the home stretch of the preseason.

Like Williams, Poyer has brought an attitude that was forged by the heartbreak of the NFL Draft, where he slipped to the seventh round before the Eagles grabbed him.

He's unlikely to start, but very likely to be active on game days, where he could rotate in and contribute on all the special teams.

"I'm trying to do it all," Poyer said. "I want to be able to make plays. That's the biggest thing."

The All-American at Oregon State not only was drafted lower than he believed he should have gone, but then was forced by a league rule to spend most of the offseason minicamps away from the team because they were held before his class graduated.

That gave everyone else a head start.

"Obviously those guys got to come out here in the OTAs and work on their craft," Poyer said, "but I was staying positive. I was staying ahead of whatever bar was set. I was studying the play book and working out every single day and came in here in great shape.

"I'm still learning. Every single day, I'm still learning the speed of the game. I know the defense, I know the coverages, I know the plays."

And it would seem that Davis, after a bit of trial and error, knows his players now too. At the very least, they can play soft matchups with acceptable results, an improvement over the disasters of 2011 and 2012, when the corners never matched up with the schemes and the safeties struggled to put out too many fires that weren't their fault.

"We just have to continue to play the way we have been playing, maybe take it up another notch," Williams said. "The season is around the corner, and the third game is usually where we have to show what we have, and we have to bring it all together. Hopefully we can do that this week."